3 candidates challenge Haiti presidential election

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.

Three of Haiti's 27 presidential candidates have challenged the preliminary results of the Nov. 20 election, which shows Jovenel Moise winning with 58.46 percent of the vote.

Opposition candidates Jude Celestin, Jean-Charles Moise, and Maryse Narcisse denounced an "electoral coup d'etat" after the re-run of last year's vote, submitting appeals to the Western Electoral Office (BED) Friday, according to local media reports.

The three parties said they have "solid evidence" of the alleged electoral fraud, to which the Haitian electoral body will have three weeks to respond as per law.

According to preliminary results released by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), Moise of the Tet Kale Party (PHTK), running on strong agribusiness experience as a banana producer, won the first round of the election with more than half of the votes.

Jude Celestin, of The Alternative League for Progress and Haitian Emancipation (Lapeh), came second with 20.50 percent. Moise of the Platform of the Dessalines’ Children received 11.60 percent, and Lavalas Family's representative Narcisse got 9.44 percent.

Most of the pre-election polls were accurate with the order of the candidates.

The results also match with those of the first electoral contest held on Oct. 25,2015 and canceled in summer by an independent commission over fraud.

The official results are scheduled for Dec. 29 and if these numbers are confirmed, a second ballot will not be necessary, since Haitian laws establish that the winner must obtain 50 percent of the votes plus one.

The re-run was held amid mass abstention due to public frustration after Haitians tried to vote unsuccessfully on four occasions since last year.